The problem is that there is international demand for something that only exists in the united states.

At the pro level, this isn't really a problem, because it all balances out. Tennis is a very international sport now, so Americans are facing much more competition from overseas, but there's a lot of opportunity overseas as well.

In college tennis, unfortunately there really isn't much opportunity outside the US to play. So international players who decide that they want to play college tennis have only one place to go - the US.

The world population is about 6.8 billion, and the US is about 311 million - about 4.5% of the world population. Of course, the *tennis playing* population in the US is a larger percentage than that, but it's not like american football, which is played overwhelmingly in the US. This is an international game.

People talk about bringing up the level of tennis in the US, and that's a fine idea, but it's not going to change the basic numbers here. If the tennis playing population is international, the international population of tennis players exceeds the number of US players, the US is the only place to play college tennis, and international students have the same access to these spots and scholarships as the US... well, we can raise our level, but it's not realistic to think that the US is going to supply the majority of the top college tennis players any more than it would supply the majority of pro players in a very international game.

The big difference is that there's a demand for pro players overseas, but no demand for college players - however, supply is international, so the entire international population of college-bound tennis players is funneled into the US. Raising the level of the US game may change things a bit on the margins, and I'm all for it, but its not going to dramatically change these numbers.

In the interests of fairness, competition, and cultural enrichment, each foreign player on college scholarship should agree to invite a US player to their home country to play in a tennis tourney once a year, all expenses paid of course.

The way things are going when your daughter graduates HS the Ivy League tennis teams may be 50% foreign. And good luck getting there on academic merit only. She may be able to get a full academic scholarship at the local top public university but she will not be able to play on the varsity team there. Maybe because in high school your daughter after practice will be doing home work until 2am every day. So she may find it difficult to compete against these Eastern Europeans who did not go to school at all.

Your an idiot if you think europeans dont go to school at all. Have you checked the grades of many of these foreigners? They actually find our universities much easier then the work they do in Highschool.

In the interests of fairness, competition, and cultural enrichment, each foreign player on college scholarship should agree to invite a US player to their home country to play in a tennis tourney once a year, all expenses paid of course.

Your an idiot if you think europeans dont go to school at all. Have you checked the grades of many of these foreigners? They actually find our universities much easier then the work they do in Highschool.

The comments on these boards are appalling sometimes........

I have no doubts that europeans who did go to school may find many of our universities much easier than their high school. But some of them, especially eastern europeans, did very little schooling. There are also special HSs for athletes with much lower requirements.

I did a ton of research. First I found each of the Conference Champions, and then I found the Rosters of each team. 122 recruits are USA and 183 are International. So 40% are USA. (see summary below) 60% are foreigners.

Biggest non-USA recruiting conferences were Conference USA and Ohio Valley with zero (0) USA players on both teams in each of their conference championship matches (Tulsa v. Memphis & Eastern Kentucky v. Tennessee Tech). What an oxymoron that "Conference USA" has zero Americans!!

I did a ton of research. First I found each of the Conference Champions, and then I found the Rosters of each team. 122 recruits are USA and 183 are International. So 40% are USA. (see summary below) 60% are foreigners.

Biggest non-USA recruiting conferences were Conference USA and Ohio Valley with zero (0) USA players on both teams in each of their conference championship matches (Tulsa v. Memphis & Eastern Kentucky v. Tennessee Tech). What an oxymoron that "Conference USA" has zero Americans!!

First I found the current champions from each conference. Then I found the roster from each of those teams. So the stats are current data, of current recruits, of each conference champion. I wish I had time to research the other 32. Maybe I will re calculate after the first round.

good work, now how many of those Americans actually play in the line up? keep in mind that a good % of those americans u see on the roster, are just waterboys and sparring partners.

These are conference champs and although it's a nice sampling it's by no means representative of the percentages across the college tennis board. These numbers will be scewed to favor the internationals because the majority of the conference champs are from non-BCS conferences. These schools tend to favor attracting internationals and traditionally have a hard time pulling in American players.

Since we are taking samplings let's look at Alcorn St. They are a HBCU. Their tennis team has no Americans. Clearly not making up typical enrollment percentages of HBCU's. I'd like to see what the rest of the rosters look like in the SWAC but I'm not going to waste that time as I have a good idea. But heck Alcorn St. made the NCAA with an all foreign roster. The MEAC and South Carolina St. is no different. Who would and where would these American tennis player be that so badly want to play DI tennis at these schools that are getting shut out due to internationals?

Any of you pro international roster limiting proponent parents up for offering your BlueChip, 5 star or even 4 star kid up to play tennis at a SWAC or MEAC school? That's what I thought.

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"i thought those were just a little harmless brown bugs, you know the ones take wings and fly? but it turned to be Flees." Fedace

These are conference champs and although it's a nice sampling it's by no means representative of the percentages across the college tennis board. These numbers will be scewed to favor the internationals because the majority of the conference champs are from non-BCS conferences. These schools tend to favor attracting internationals and traditionally have a hard time pulling in American players.

Since we are taking samplings let's look at Alcorn St. They are a HBCU. Their tennis team has no Americans. Clearly not making up typical enrollment percentages of HBCU's. I'd like to see what the rest of the rosters look like in the SWAC but I'm not going to waste that time as I have a good idea. But heck Alcorn St. made the NCAA with an all foreign roster. The MEAC and South Carolina St. is no different. Who would and where would these American tennis player be that so badly want to play DI tennis at these schools that are getting shut out due to internationals?

Any of you pro international roster limiting proponent parents up for offering your BlueChip, 5 star or even 4 star kid up to play tennis at a SWAC or MEAC school? That's what I thought.

Good one!

I don't think there are any Blue Chip, 5 star, or even top-half-4-star parents complaining about there not being good spots available because of foreigners. (Of course, if there is an exception, we know that this is defined as the being the norm by some)

I think this is a low-4-star, 3-star, 2-star parent issue....for the parents who are posting up about it from self-interest

I don't think there are any Blue Chip, 5 star, or even top-half-4-star parents complaining about there not being good spots available because of foreigners. (Of course, if there is an exception, we know that this is defined as the being the norm by some)

I think this is a low-4-star, 3-star, 2-star parent issue....for the parents who are posting up about it from self-interest

Correct, those doing the complaining would like everyone to think that's the norm. What we can't see is their hidden (behind their computers) agendas. The only real hard numbers are these showing top American kids are getting their opportunity. http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/U...INAL_CLEAN.pdf However, since it was made in 2006 one poster try's to say it's out of date. Maybe that's because it does not meet with their agenda. Still the only hard real numbers out there. Even if they've changed and internationals are playing more college tennis in the U.S. I still contend there's plenty of tennis scholarship out there. Even for lower skilled H.S. players (1 stars and below).

Hmmm, self interest is an underlying motive for the position against internationals playing tennis? Regardless, I see little to few American kids showing interest in playing tennis at SWAC and MEAC schools. For me, I'm happy they have tennis programs for the handful of American kids grateful enough who want to play there.

Rosters of the top 40 in Men's DI Tennis
April 24, 2012 ITA Men's Team Rankings
* indicates starting line-up
27 teams out of the top 40 (68%) have starting line-ups of 50% or more foreign players
29 teams out of the top 40 (73%) have 4 or more foreign players on their roster
7 teams out of the top 40 have a 100% starting line-up of foreign players on their roster
Only 1 team out of the top 40 has a 100% American roster - Vanderbilt University